OPPO admits fast charging degrades battery life considerably

These days a number of smartphones are being marketed for their fast charging capabilities. While it juices-up the battery in a lot less time than conventional chargers, this technology takes a toll on the battery longevity. OPPO devices have been chasing after fast charging speeds with their wired tech, and now wireless charging speeds are the next frontier. Last month OPPO announced Ace2 phone with wireless charging speed of 40W (with AirVOOC tech) and wired charging speed of 65W (with SuperVOOC 2.0) which is best in the class.

That said, OPPO itself has confirmed via Andrei F. of AnandTech that fast charging is not good for long term battery life. In a Tweet, Andrei said that OPPO admits 40W wireless fast charging degrades battery capacity to 70 percent in the same amount of cycles as a 15W fast charging would do to degrade the battery to 90 percent. This comes at a time when most OPPO phones have 30W or higher fast charging tech in its devices.

This is the exact reason why brands like Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus don’t market their phones on fast charging speeds. In fact Apple currently offers a maximum fast charging speed of 18W, Samsung has 25W and OnePlus has 30W charging speeds. Brands that provide long term support for devices, in general, tend to play it soft on the fast charging tech since it is evident that battery longevity is affected by higher fast charging speeds.

People who tend to use their phones for 2-4 years give battery longevity a preference, and fast charging is not on their priority list. However, ones who tend to change their phones every year or so, won’t notice the battery degradation as much and tend to go for fast charging phones. So, as a user what do you think about aggressively decreasing phone charging times? Do you prefer the convenience of fast chargers or you’d rather settle for respectable phone charging times?